German chancellor’s tense standoff with hardline interior minister “endangers existence of gvernment as substantially as the stability of the country”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing strong pressure to tighten her country’s refugee policies to avoid the collapse of her coalition government as the heated row over the handling of migration intensifies.

A tense standoff between Merkel and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer continued on Thursday. Merkel and Seehofer spoke for more than two hours on Wednesday night without reaching an agreement on whether the right-wing minister’s demand that refugees should be turned away at Germany’s borders.

The German newspaper Die Welt highlighted the gravity of the situation: “The conflict endangers the existence of the federal government as substantially as the stability of the country.”

Merkel reportedly urged Seehofer to wait until the June 28 European Union summit, where she pledged to seek a Europe-wide agreement. However, Seehofer is believed to have said that the EU had consistently failed to agree on a common policy since the refugee crisis began three years ago, and that it was unlikely that a consensus would be reached by the end of June.

A Bundestag session was delayed for two hours to allow Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the CSU, its Bavarian sister party, of which Seehofer is a member, to gather for separate emergency meetings, a move that is unprecedented

On Thursday morning, a Bundestag session was delayed for two hours to allow Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), its Bavarian sister party, of which Seehofer is a member, to gather for separate emergency meetings, a move that is unprecedented.

On Wednesday, Merkel called immigration “a litmus test for Europe” that necessitated “a truly unified approach.” However, the issue is costing her support within the CDU and is a growing source of tension within her conservative bloc.

Seehofer’s CSU faces a state election in October in which it must square off against the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). The immigration issue is highly emotive, and the CSU’s leaders believe the party needs to take a firm stance, which has the potential to cause a damaging rift with Merkel’s CDU that threatens the future of the fragile coalition.

Seehofer’s chief demand is that asylum seekers be rejected at Germany’s borders if they have entered the European Union in another country, or if they have previously applied for asylum in Germany but were unsuccessful.

Merkel has said that such a move would be illegal and could undermine efforts to construct a comprehensive and viable EU refugee policy.

One Response to German chancellor’s tense standoff with hardline interior minister “endangers existence of gvernment as substantially as the stability of the country”

This report shows that the problems which Australia’s centre-right (but increasingly right-wing) Coalition has are not unique to it; nor are the internecine arguments of coalitions, elsewhere, fought any less fiercely or tenaciously. Those with long memories might remember the fractious nature of the CSU-CDU alliance when Franz-Josef Strauss led the Bavarian minority party: he eventually left Federal politics and became Premier of the conservative and overwhelmingly Catholic state of Bavaria. As happened with the ALP in the 1950s in Australia and as promises, here, for the Liberal Party in the future, there are serious risks when religion and politics strive for “coexistence” in the supposedly secular world.
So, when politics, personal rivalries, and issues of state rights (including “border protection”), which can all-too-easily look like racism, (here, too) assume an importance that is greater and more emotionally powerful than national and administrative stability or social coherence, then — especially in a wider (and, in its aspirations, nobler) geopolitical Union like Europe — greater and more pervasive risks threaten than simply domestic disagreements. And when all of that happens in a fraught wider sphere — of disputes about trade and armaments (for example) between the Great Powers and their subordinates and satellites — the risks are seriously magnified.
Previous wars have ignited in Europe and it could happen again, particularly when the attention of Australia and others is distracted by what is happening in and to our own region. The risks are even greater when Australian journalists, diplomats and politicians lack fluency and confidence in the array of languages which are involved and rely on partisan and self-interested accounts of reporters and participants on “our side” (with the likelihood, therefore, of not even the misty semblance of any “independent” foreign policy).
It is worse than simply, “Poor fella, my country” — serious and important though that is; it is, really, “Poor fella, my world”.

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